"Livingstone, I presume" (Oct. 27, 1871?)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Oct 27 22:24:24 UTC 2006


Stanley's journal was two weeks off?
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_http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2003/october/livingstone.php?page=5_ 
(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2003/october/livingstone.php?page=5) 
...
 
Stanley stepped up crisply to the old man,  removed his helmet and extended 
his hand. According to Stanley’s journal, it was  November 10, 1871. With 
formal intonation, representing America but trying to  affect British gravity, 
Stanley spoke, according to later accounts, the most  dignified words that came to 
mind: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” 
“Yes,” Livingstone answered simply. 
“I thank God, doctor,” Stanley said, appalled at  how fragile Livingstone 
looked, “I have been permitted to see you.” 
“I feel thankful,” Livingstone said with typical  understatement, “I am here 
to welcome you.”  
London, England, October 27, 1871—On a  cool autumn morning, under a sky that 
threatened rain, a procession of 13  mourning carriages rolled through the 
north entrance of Brompton Cemetery moving  toward the grave site of Sir 
Roderick Murchison. He would be buried next to his  wife. Prime Minister William 
Gladstone and a host of dignitaries stepped from  their carriages and solemnly 
walked to the grave. Murchison was a conservative,  and Gladstone the day’s 
preeminent liberal, but the two men had crossed paths  for a lifetime. “Went to Sir 
R. Murchison’s funeral; the last of those who had  known me from infancy,” 
Gladstone wrote in his journal. “And so a step toward  the end is made visible.”
 
Stanley’s and Livingstone’s journals show that  both men had lost track of 
time, and their journals were off by days—in  Stanley’s case, as much as two 
weeks. The date on which Stanley actually found  Livingstone was not November 
10 but October 27—two years to the  day since Bennett had bestowed the Great 
Commission upon Stanley. It was also  the very day of Murchison’s burial. In fact
—given that Murchison’s funeral ran  from 11:00 in the morning until 1:30 in 
the afternoon, and taking into account a  two-hour time difference, Murchison 
would have been lowered into the ground only  after his long-lost friend had 
been found by Stanley.
  

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